Mind Steel

Baring her teeth ever so slightly as she ground them together, Takako’s frustration with Yuki grew along with her confusion. “Real experience? What’s experience going to do when you can only run away from me?!” She felt the confidence coming off of Yuki now that he suddenly had his armored gauntlet. It wasn’t that he seemed like he was mocking her. Rather, she could tell something was different about Yuki now. She didn’t understand it, but her body could tell.

Despite what her body told her, she put power into the magic array again. It quickly built up power, firing another column of flames at Yuki. “What’s some scrap metal going to do against overwhelming power?!”

The red glow of the flames engulfed Yuki as he remained unmoved by her attack. He merely lifted his armored hand up. Splashing upon him, the column split in parts divided around him and continued on. After the attack passed, he came out of it with only a slight glow to his skin from the heat. “This is a lot more than just some random scrap of metal,” he replied, showing it off to her.

It already kept him safe twice. Takako let out a low growl of annoyance. ‘This shouldn’t be happening! I had him! He should have been killed!’ He refused to go down. Yuki defied her at every turn. “I don’t care! You must die!”

More arrays appeared as she became desperate to bring an end to Yuki. He became too much of a threat. She threw everything into flame and metal attacks. But none of it worked against Yuki. The metal rods bounced off the armor, even with the sharpened edges. And the flames couldn’t even touch him.

After the wash of attacks ended again, another gauntlet appeared on his other forearm. ‘It’s finally all finished. I’ve stalled long enough…’ All around him the air filled with metal parts. Snapping on to his body, he quickly was covered from the neck down in armor.

Chapter 356 – Mind Steel

Painted in red and white with blue and black highlights, the armor closely formed to Yuki’s body while still appearing to have flexibility. The metal glowed softly from all of the magic in the air giving it a slightly halo around it.

Takako lost most of her frustration staring at the surprising turn that Yuki took in the fight. She didn’t expect him to don full body armor to fight. “Think you’ve seen one too many American movies,” she commented, feeling less impressed by what she saw as Yuki’s apparent answer to defeating her.

The remark made Yuki’s brow twitch a little. “It’s called Powered Armor. But don’t think that this is just like what you see in movies or you’re going to be regretting it quickly.” His last piece flew in snapping to his head and closing around his face finishing the armor.

Grinning, Takako dropped her guard, having trouble taking it seriously. “You think you can do anything in—“ Suddenly Yuki disappeared in a flash of light and reappeared in front of her swinging his armored fist.

Surprise painted over her face she saw flew backwards crashing into a tree. The force sent cracks through the trunk and partly embedded her in the wood. Leaves rained around from the shuddering tree.

Coughing to get her breath back after the surprise attack, Takako ripped her body free from the trunk. Her face stung from the hit more than any of the other hits Yuki made on her. It made her angry. ‘There was something very different about that hit than all of the others that he made… What did he do?’ She glared down at Yuki resting one tree away from her. “What did you do?!”

“You seem to pick up fast.”

Hiroshi stared on in surprise from above. He managed to get himself back into a safe spot on the tree. It gave him the perfect view to watch the battle. “That wasn’t a trick… Yuki actually hit her with his fist or rather the armor. But how? I thought he couldn’t touch her with his powers. She neutralizes his power.”

“Don’t mock me!”

“I’m not. You’re more than just lucky. It would seem you’ve got some inherent talent.” While he paid her compliments, it troubled him. ‘I had hoped to get more out of my surprise than a single hit.’

Inside on the screens within his helmet, a message ran across ‘Searching…’ It had only started the work with no display for the time it would take. While it ran, Yuki focused on the plan.

Aiming his hand at the tree that supported Takako, a mass of energy formed quickly. It shot out from his palm completely destroying the section of the trunk it hit with the whole upper half pulled down by gravity.

While Takako leapt up to the top side of the truck Yuki gazed out meeting her in a momentary stare down. He closed the distance quickly hitting her in the face, but she only slid back a little. She attempted to counter with a return strike, but Yuki blocked it with his arm while punching her again with his free hand.

Takako was on the defensive, unable to hold up to Yuki’s barrage. She slid back more on the tree as punches wailed on her. Lacking her defense and his blows more powerful than before, her face started to get bloodied from all of the attacks.

Yuki turned around, sweeping her off her feet with a low kick. With only a few meters left in their fall before hitting the ground, he grabbed her ankle. Spinning her around quickly he threw her down into the ground with all of the force from their fall and what he added to it.

A crater ripped through the earth catching Takako eventually as she came to a stop. Though a modest hole compared to some of the others this night, Takako was left stunned from everything happening.

She was losing.

Landing out on the edge of the crater, Yuki stared down at the smoke cloud waiting for a reaction from her. He could still see her through the clouds, but it wasn’t his goal to kill her. So he didn’t push his advantage. The search still continued, but seemed to be getting closer to the results he was needing. ‘Should have put in a more powerful CPU, but I made this for combat…’

The earth rumbled softly transferring it through his metal to his body. She was pissed off. Her hands slammed into the ground at her frustrations. A scream voicing that emotion ripped through the air. All of her plans seemed to finally be hitting a point where she had to accept that she could fail. She might have been angered before and annoyed, but she still felt in control. This time she was losing control and she had to admit it to herself.

A blast of fire shot out from the bottom of the crater creating the necessary force to blow away the smoke. Takako stood glaring up at Yuki with her black uniform torn from the collision. “Bastard… what did you do? How can you possibly touch me?! It’s impossible!”

“Nearly nothing is impossible with my power. You should already know that.”

“But I can negate all your power!”

“Yes, you can.”

“Then how?!”

“I told you before already. This is the gap in our experience.”

Takako growled at Yuki not accepting his answer. She pounded her foot into the earth as new magic arrays formed. “Well if you’re not going to tell me, then I’ll just drown you!” Water rushed forth from the array charging straight for Yuki.

Unlike the flames, the water surrounded Yuki with him unmoving. It spun around and filled the area until eventually spilling away. Yuki remained stationary and unreactive. “This suit is air tight. You’ve got the wrong approach.”

“Then how about this!” A new array formed with sparks jumping around it before energy even formed. Lightning leapt out to Yuki and the water completely electrified. It bounced and clung to the metal armor lighting up the well polished surface.

Yet Yuki made no reaction still. Takako became even more angry from Yuki just mocking her efforts. She threw out her hand directly calling magic into a massive array. Lightning built up quickly as greater magic appeared. The array expanded and doubled with the formula increasing in complexity.

The ground around Takako began to shake. Tiny pieces of rubble began to roll and bounce around as the power increased. Leaking magic transformed form into lightning striking the ground. Jumping around from surface to surface the entire crater became alit with the blinding light. “Take this, the next level of magic!”

Measurements of the energy build up displayed across Yuki’s screen as the light filtered through not to blind him. ‘Damn…this is a lot more power than I anticipated. I don’t think even this suit could take that even using a grounding antenna… Hurry up on the search already! My winning the fight has made her desperate.’

Yuki disappeared in a flash of light and then reappeared behind Takako. She began to turn around just as his fist came out to knock her into the earth. The lightning magic disappeared quickly as the source for the array disconnected. Magic shattered into particles as the array collapsed.

“Damn you!” muttered Takako from in her tunnel Yuki dug for herself. She blasted a hole through the earth with her fire to quickly clear space.

“I’m not going to be so kind as to just let you take all that time to charge up an attack. Such attacks are a weakness in this sort of fight.”

“You bastard!”

“Curse me all you want, but you’ve watched too many anime if you think I’m that considerate.” Yuki charged straight for Takako even as she threw out fast cast magic. Its power was too weak to even be something to slow him down.

Knocked into the air, Takako fought to keep control of her body as Yuki completely dominated the field. Blood sprayed through the air as she went through two trees before coming to a stop. She caught herself on the edge of the branch and landed with her legs cushioning her impact.

He landed on a separate tree a short distance away from her. The way the last round went bothered him. He could tell the difference. ‘She’s getting used to the pace. She’s quickly adapting to the situation and she’s able to recover from my blows. I need that search to finish already… I can’t waste my move without exact coordinates…’

The magic in the air disappeared suddenly. Takako stood up taking a new stance. Around her the air took on a new charge. Once more her presence changed and Yuki knew what was happening. ‘She’s given up on Fumiko’s power and moved to someone else’s power. Whatever it is that she throws at me this armor should be able to take it.’

Holding off his attack until he knew what she was planning gave Takako all the time she needed. She leapt from her tree going straight for Yuki. Her increased speed forced Yuki to disappear in a flash of light. She glanced up to the new location he moved to. “I see… You aren’t actually moving that fast. You’re doing some sort of teleporting.”

‘She’s figured out my movement. With their eyes it’s not surprising, the light I use to mask my transport only works for so long before someone with enough time figures it out.’ He could feel his advantage starting to slip once again.

Returning to the attack, he leapt for Takako. He disappeared and reappeared striking her completely open flank. However, his punch did nothing to her. There was an odd dull thud he got from the strike, but nothing more. He made a couple more attempts, but nothing got through to her.

Takako turned to look at Yuki. “Your punches are too weak…” She then delivered a punch back in his stomach, launching him through several trees before systems took over to stop him.

He coughed having trouble suddenly. Blood dripped from his lips as he understood well what had to have happened. “…damn…this isn’t good…” Then a warning displayed on his screen. It alerted him to a damage in his armor that was spreading quickly.

He jettisoned the parts that were damaged realizing something was wrong. It left his right side completely exposed. His hand caught one of the pieces that was damaged seeing it continue to erode away. “Some sort of acid or rusting power… This is bad… She’s going to be able to completely take me apart without me even hurting her…”